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Friday, March 30, 2012

Market Summary -- 30th Mar 12

FTSE STI closed 3,010.46, up 16.37 points or +0.55% with a total volume of 2.02b and a total value of S$1.61b. Total number of advance vs decline was 210 vs 155. Of the 30 component index stocks, 21 closed positive, 7 closed negative and 2 remained unchanged. The top 5 gainer component stocks were :-

1. Jardine C&C +0.570

2. JSH 500US$ +0.310

3. JMH 400US$ +0.300

4. CityDev +0.150

5. HKLand US$ +0.140

The top 5 loser component stocks were :-

1. F&N -0.190

2. SIA Engg -0.050

3. SGX -0.030

4. DBS -0.030

5. SIA -0.010

US markets closed mixed yesterday night with DJ positive while the other 2 negative. Jobless claims came in slightly below expectation while GDP came in as expected. Nothing much to excite about but all 3 markets were able to pare losses when closed in particular DJ reversed loss to close positive. Asian bourses ended the last day of 1Q2012 mixed with Nikkei closed -0.31%, SSE +0.47% and HSI -0.26%. STI was on the positive side due to window dressing closing +0.55% with a total volume exceed the 2 billion mark and 21 of the 30 index stocks registered positive closing.

It was all about window dressing for the day. Whatever funds wanting to sell off to record realized gain for 1Q2012 all sold and whatever funds needed to dress up their portfolio pushed the price up on close. Coming to this weekend, EU Finance Ministers will be meeting in Copenhagen to discuss the outcome of increasing the EU rescue fund and most expected the outcome will be positive. If so, that will be another step moving to resolving the EU debt issue.

Investors should monitor for selling pressure easing up next week and also the starting of the earning season in middle of next month. Those should be the catalysts to move the market away from consolidating mode.